The Marketing Mix Syndrome
Marketing tools that are used to satisfy customers and company objectives represents marketing mix. The key is to not always depend on "one" mix always explore other avenues. Many products, services and experiences are supported by customer services teams.
Customer services provided expertise, technical support and coordinate the customer interface.
The disposition and attitude of such people is vitally important to a company.
Today, customer service can be face-to-face, over the telephone or using the Internet.
Variables often referred to as the four Ps in marketing as we all know:
Product
Price
Place (Distribution)
Promotion
Always make sure that your marketing mix has a message that speaks in unison.
A product is simply the tangible, phsysical entity that they may be buying or selling. In order to actively explore the nature of a product further we should consider it as three different products - the CORE product, the ACTUAL product, and finally the AUGMENTED product. These are the 'Three Levels of a Product.'
The CORE product is NOT the tangible, physical product. The core product is the BENEFIT of the product that makes it valuable to you.
The ACTUAL product is the tangible, physical product of some use.
The AUGMENTED product is the non-physical part of the product. It usually consists of lots of added value, for which you may or may not pay a premium.
CLC#PLC[/i][/b][/i][/b]
Customer Life Cycle focuses upon the creation of and delivery of lifetime value to the customer.
HSBC has a number of products that it aims at its customers throughout their lifetime relationship with the company. You can start young when you want to save money. 11-15 year olds are targeted with the Livecash Account, and 16-17 year olds with the Right Track Account. Then when you begin College or University there are Student Loans, and when you qualify there are Recent Graduate Accounts. You embark upon a number of savings plans and schemes, and ultimately HSBC offer you pension planning. Similarly, Volkswagen Cars retains a customer for many years and one can predict the products that meet a customer’s needs throughout his or her family lifetime.
The elements of the promotions mix are:[/b][/b]
Personal Selling
Sales Promotion
Public Relations
Direct Mail
Trade Fairs and Exhibitions
Advertising
Sponsorship
The elements of the promotions mix are integrated to form a coherent campaign.
The Promotions Mix[/b][/b]
Personal Selling is an effective way to manage personal customer relationships. The sales person acts on behalf of the organization. They tend to be well trained in the approaches and techniques of personal selling. However sales people are very expensive and should only be used where there is a genuine return on investment. For example salesmen are often used to sell cars or home improvements where the margin is high.
Sales promotion tend to be thought of as being all promotions apart from advertising, personal selling, and public relations. For example the BOGOF promotion, or Buy One Get One Free. Others include couponing, money-off promotions, competitions, free accessories (such as free blades with a new razor), introductory offers (such as buy digital TV and get free installation), and so on. Each sales promotion should be carefully costed and compared with the next best alternative.
Public Relations is defined as 'the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its publics' (Institute of Public Relations). It is relatively cheap, but certainly not cheap. Successful strategies tend to be long-term and plan for all eventualities. All airlines exploit PR; just watch what happens when there is a disaster. The pre-planned PR machine clicks in very quickly with a very effective rehearsed plan.
Direct mail is very highly focussed upon targeting consumers based upon a database. As with all marketing, the potential consumer is 'defined' based upon a series of attributes and similarities. Creative agencies work with marketers to design a highly focussed communication in the form of a mailing. The mail is sent out to the potential consumers and responses are carefully monitored. For example, if you are marketing medical text books, you would use a database of doctors' surgeries as the basis of your mail shot.
Such approaches are very good for making new contacts and renewing old ones. Companies will seldom sell much at such events. The purpose is to increase awareness and to encourage trial. They offer the opportunity for companies to meet with both the trade and the consumer. Expo has recently finish in Germany with the next one planned for Japan in 2005, despite a recent decline in interest in such events.
.
Advertising is a 'paid for' communication. It is used to develop attitudes, create awareness, and transmit information in order to gain a response from the target market. There are many advertising 'media' such as newspapers (local, national, free, trade), magazines and journals, television (local, national, terrestrial, satellite) cinema, outdoor advertising (such as posters, bus sides).
Sponsorship is where an organization pays to be associated with a particular event, cause or image. Companies will sponsor sports events such as the Olympics or Formula One. The attributes of the event are then associated with the sponsoring organization.
There are many examples of physical evidence, including some of the following:
Packaging.
Internet/web pages.
Paperwork (such as invoices, tickets and despatch notes).
Brochures.
Furnishings.
Signage (such as those on aircraft and vehicles).
Uniforms.
Business cards.
The building itself (such as prestigious offices or scenic headquarters).
Mailboxes
Marketing tools that are used to satisfy customers and company objectives represents marketing mix. The key is to not always depend on "one" mix always explore other avenues. Many products, services and experiences are supported by customer services teams.
Customer services provided expertise, technical support and coordinate the customer interface.
The disposition and attitude of such people is vitally important to a company.
Today, customer service can be face-to-face, over the telephone or using the Internet.
Variables often referred to as the four Ps in marketing as we all know:
Product
Price
Place (Distribution)
Promotion
Always make sure that your marketing mix has a message that speaks in unison.
A product is simply the tangible, phsysical entity that they may be buying or selling. In order to actively explore the nature of a product further we should consider it as three different products - the CORE product, the ACTUAL product, and finally the AUGMENTED product. These are the 'Three Levels of a Product.'
The CORE product is NOT the tangible, physical product. The core product is the BENEFIT of the product that makes it valuable to you.
The ACTUAL product is the tangible, physical product of some use.
The AUGMENTED product is the non-physical part of the product. It usually consists of lots of added value, for which you may or may not pay a premium.
CLC#PLC[/i][/b][/i][/b]
Customer Life Cycle focuses upon the creation of and delivery of lifetime value to the customer.
HSBC has a number of products that it aims at its customers throughout their lifetime relationship with the company. You can start young when you want to save money. 11-15 year olds are targeted with the Livecash Account, and 16-17 year olds with the Right Track Account. Then when you begin College or University there are Student Loans, and when you qualify there are Recent Graduate Accounts. You embark upon a number of savings plans and schemes, and ultimately HSBC offer you pension planning. Similarly, Volkswagen Cars retains a customer for many years and one can predict the products that meet a customer’s needs throughout his or her family lifetime.
The elements of the promotions mix are:[/b][/b]
Personal Selling
Sales Promotion
Public Relations
Direct Mail
Trade Fairs and Exhibitions
Advertising
Sponsorship
The elements of the promotions mix are integrated to form a coherent campaign.
The Promotions Mix[/b][/b]
Personal Selling is an effective way to manage personal customer relationships. The sales person acts on behalf of the organization. They tend to be well trained in the approaches and techniques of personal selling. However sales people are very expensive and should only be used where there is a genuine return on investment. For example salesmen are often used to sell cars or home improvements where the margin is high.
Sales promotion tend to be thought of as being all promotions apart from advertising, personal selling, and public relations. For example the BOGOF promotion, or Buy One Get One Free. Others include couponing, money-off promotions, competitions, free accessories (such as free blades with a new razor), introductory offers (such as buy digital TV and get free installation), and so on. Each sales promotion should be carefully costed and compared with the next best alternative.
Public Relations is defined as 'the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its publics' (Institute of Public Relations). It is relatively cheap, but certainly not cheap. Successful strategies tend to be long-term and plan for all eventualities. All airlines exploit PR; just watch what happens when there is a disaster. The pre-planned PR machine clicks in very quickly with a very effective rehearsed plan.
Direct mail is very highly focussed upon targeting consumers based upon a database. As with all marketing, the potential consumer is 'defined' based upon a series of attributes and similarities. Creative agencies work with marketers to design a highly focussed communication in the form of a mailing. The mail is sent out to the potential consumers and responses are carefully monitored. For example, if you are marketing medical text books, you would use a database of doctors' surgeries as the basis of your mail shot.
Such approaches are very good for making new contacts and renewing old ones. Companies will seldom sell much at such events. The purpose is to increase awareness and to encourage trial. They offer the opportunity for companies to meet with both the trade and the consumer. Expo has recently finish in Germany with the next one planned for Japan in 2005, despite a recent decline in interest in such events.
.
Advertising is a 'paid for' communication. It is used to develop attitudes, create awareness, and transmit information in order to gain a response from the target market. There are many advertising 'media' such as newspapers (local, national, free, trade), magazines and journals, television (local, national, terrestrial, satellite) cinema, outdoor advertising (such as posters, bus sides).
Sponsorship is where an organization pays to be associated with a particular event, cause or image. Companies will sponsor sports events such as the Olympics or Formula One. The attributes of the event are then associated with the sponsoring organization.
There are many examples of physical evidence, including some of the following:
Packaging.
Internet/web pages.
Paperwork (such as invoices, tickets and despatch notes).
Brochures.
Furnishings.
Signage (such as those on aircraft and vehicles).
Uniforms.
Business cards.
The building itself (such as prestigious offices or scenic headquarters).
Mailboxes